"Hawaii Mars" the last Martin Mars bomber going to B.C. Aviation Museum

[Brian Gough]

Yesterday the Hawaii Martin Mars water bomber made its final flight.

Link to story and pictures in the Victoria Times Colonist.

https://www.timescolonist.com/local-...escort-9335374

Excerpt from story:

"Tens of thousands gathered Sunday to watch the water bomber — long a symbol of firefighting in B.C. — make its final flight from Sproat Lake to Patricia Bay across Vancouver Island. The plane will be hauled out of the water and transported to the B.C. Aviation Museum in North Saanich, where it will become a permanent exhibit.

Wayne Coulson, CEO of Coulson Aviation, said hundreds of boats and thousands of spectators were at Sproat Lake to send off the plane when the Coulson family boarded the Hawaii Martin Mars for a loop around the lake prior to its departure.

Sunday’s flight itinerary included fly-bys across Port Alberni, Comox, Campbell River, Powell River Nanaimo, the Gulf Islands and downtown Victoria.

When the plane reached Crofton, the Canadian Forces Snowbirds, fresh from an airshow in Abbotsford, began accompanying it as Hawaii Martin Mars neared its last descent.

Thousands lined the shoreline and Patricia Bay Park for the occasion.

Traffic on area roads came to a standstill when the Martin Mars made its first flyover of the Saanich Peninsula at 6:15 p.m. on its way to downtown Victoria, accompanied by the Snowbirds.

The cheers that accompanied the water bomber when it returned about 25 minutes later were only barely drowned out by the thundering roar of the plane coming over the bay to land.

People stood on top of cars and trucks to get a better view.

A final cheer arose from the shoreline when the propellers of the massive plane shut off for the last time at 6:50 p.m. after mooring at the Institute of Ocean Sciences. "